E-Journal of Linguistics FORM and MEANING of TI'i KA DISCOURSE
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e-Journal of Linguistics FORM AND MEANING OF TI'I KA DISCOURSE IN MBASA WINI RITUAL OF RONGGA ETHNIC IN FLORES Ni Wayan Sumitri e-mail : [email protected] Institute of Teacher Training PGRI Bali Prof. Dr. I Nyoman Weda Kusuma, M.S e-mail : [email protected] Study Program of Linguistics, School of Postgraduate Studies, Udayana University Prof. Dr. I Nyoman Suarka, M.S e-mail : [email protected] Study Program of Linguistics, School of Postgraduate Studies, Udayana University Dr. Fransiscus Bustan, M.Lib [email protected] Nusa Cendana University ABSTRACT This article describes the results of research on the form and meaning of Ti'i ka discourse (TD) that is the food offering ritual to the ancestors in mbasa wini rituals in Rongga ethnic of Flores. Mbasa wini ritual is the new-year ritual of traditional agricultural in Rongga ethnic. Theoretical framework to guide is cultural linguistic supported by discourse, symbolic interactions and hermeneutics theories. This research is a descriptive study based on the philosophy of phenomenology. The location of the study is in the distribution of Rongga ethnic region with the main location in the Sambi Village sub-District of Kota Komba, East Manggarai regency. Methods of data collection are observation, interviews, and documentary studies. The data collection technique is recording and note-taking. The main data sources are Rongga ethnic residing in Sambi village that were represented by four key informants. The data were analyzed qualitatively using induction method. The results showed that the form and meaning of TD is unique in the context of the situation of mbasa wini ritual and socio-cultural context of Rongga ethnic. The specificity of the form is characterized by the use of complex sentences as meaning container that exposed Rongga ethnic conceptualization of the world. Type meanings include religious meaning, social, economic, and aesthetic. Religious significance related to the conceptualization of the existence of God, the spirit of ancestors, and nature spirits. The social significance is marked by the presence of people gathered as rituals participants and communication between them by using language of Rongga as a medium. Economic significance with regard to the economic system that was involved by Rongga ethnic is agricultural and farming systems. Political meaning is marked by power differences between ritual leaders and rites participants. Aesthetical meaning is reflected in the use of phonological parallelism in the form of assonance, rhyme, and alliteration. It is recommended that the Government of East Manggarai district document TDMW in printed and electronic, as well as the Rongga ethnic to make the mechanism of inheritance through mbasa wini rituals regularly and intensively every year. Keywords: forms, meanings, Ti'ika discourse, mbasa wini ritual, Rongga ethnic 1. Introduction Rongga ethnic is one of the minority ethnic in the district of Kota Komba, East Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), with a population of about 8,000 people from 11 957 residents of sub-District of Kota Komba. In addition to the number of the population, Rongga ethnic identified as minority ethnic because they do not have the same power and the opportunity to participate in Manggarai ethnic group as the dominant group (Arka, 2013: 75). Rongga ethnic is spread over several villages in the Village Tanarata, Watu Nggene Village, Bamo village, and the village of Komba. The number of tribal (clan) which are included in the Rongga ethnic is as much as 22 ethnic tribes, namely Liti, Motu, Laja, Iowa, Nggeli, Savu, Raghi, Sera, Sui, WIO, Naru, Nggenga, Nggejo, Signs, Roka, Ramba, Ria, Kewi , Pau, Poso, Langgo, and Wake (Sumitri, 2005: 36). Ethnic Rongga has its own culture with the unique pattern as a marker selfhood and distinguishing feature of Rongga ethnic. The specificity of the cultural patterns of Rongga ethnic is reflected, among others, in the mbasa wini ritual. Lexically, the word (verb) mbasa means 'spark' and the word (noun) wini means 'seed' which refers to the seeds of plants such as maize (Java) and rice (acres). In line with the background of socio-cultural context of Rongga ethnic, mbasa wini ritual is a ritual sprinkling of chicken blood on the seeds before planting in the garden in the new planting season. Mbasa wini ritual is the new year of traditional agricultural rituals of Rongga ethnic. Judging from the structure, mbasa wini rituals supervise some kind of ritual as a subordinate element and one of them is a Ti'i ka ritual. Lexically, the word (verb) Ti'i means 'give' and the word (noun) ka means 'eat'. Based on the background context, the Ti'i ka ritual is ritual of offering food to the ancestral spirits in order to inform the ancestral spirits that they want to celebrate the mbasa wini ritual. Ti'ika ritual is conducted at night in a traditional house as the opening of core ritual of mbasa wini. Types of animals for the offering are two red roosters that are slaughtered and grilled/burned. With regard to several matters reviewed above as the background of thought, this study presented specifically and deeply concerning form and meaning of Ti'i ka discourse (hereinafter abbreviated TD) spoken in Ti'i ka rituals as part of a mbasa wini ritual of Rongga ethnic. Researchers are interested in doing this research because of the form and meaning of the TD in mbasa wini ritual has distinctive characteristics in revealing the Rongga ethnic conceptualization of the world. However, most of the people in Rongga ethnic, especially the educated younger generation, are no longer accurately grasp the characteristics of form and meaning of TD in the mbasa wini ritual. In addition to these reasons, the study was done also because there has been no research that specifically examines and in depth of form and meaning of TD in the mbasa wini rituals as an identity symbol of Rongga ethnic. 2. Theoretical Framework This study rests on the culture linguistic theory of with it is supported by several related theories, including the theory of discourse, symbolic interactionism and hermeneutics. 2.1 Linguistic Theory of Culture Linguistic culture is one of the theoretical perspectives in cognitive linguistics that examines the relationship between language, culture, and the conceptualization of a society. Linguistic culture examines language through the prism of culture to discover the cultural conceptualization of knowledge embedded in a public forum. The use of language as a reflection of the cultural conceptualization of a society reflected in the discourse because discourse clinging to the language in its use as a means of communication (Palmer, 1996: 10-26; Foley, 1991: 3-5). The basic concept that became the platform of thinking in linguistic culture is language, culture, and conceptualization. In the perspective of cultural linguistics, language is understood not only as a cultural activity, but also the cultural elements. The understanding framework is related to a de Vito (1970: 7), which defines language as a system of symbols that is reflexive, systematic, structured and used by humans as citizens of a community to catalog objects, events, and their relationships in the world. Language is a container in which the meaning lists conceptualization of culture that includes an overview perspective of community groups citizens concerned to the world. The conceptual framework is interwoven in a single overall unity with cultural meanings that make up the map of knowledge shared by the community concerned. The knowledge map contains a factual picture of the world that's going on and that the symbolic object of which the referent only exists at the level of ideational or contained in the knowledge map of the community group residents concerned. As with the words or language terms, words or culture terms have broad definitions with diverse meanings framework (Kaplan and Albert, 1999: 4). Therefore, the concept of culture which becomes the guide of thinking in this study refers to the concept of culture in social anthropology that defines culture as the premise that organizes his thoughts and feelings, knowledge maps, and a system of symbols and meanings (Ochs, 1988: 5). The main focus which is the target of the study is related to meaning because the meaning relates to culture as a form of symbolic world as a place where a variety of mental and cognitive load in the form of knowledge, beliefs, norms, and values are produced, and stored (Cassirier, 1987: 63-68). Culture is the whole meaning, values, customs, ideas, and symbols that are applicable in the reality of life of a community (Kaplan and Manners, 1999: 124). According Sutrisno (1990: 60), culture is a world of meaning and values that are communicated through symbols. The meaning is the content view of life of a society and values mean something valuable that is used as a guide and a decent of living teaching. The symbol refers to a set of agreed mark used by the culture supporting community and serve as a means for them to represent and describe the specific entity. Symbol is conventional, but it can be organized, recorded, and communicated (Odgen and Richards, 1972: 9). 2.2 Theory of Discourse In the perspective of culture linguistic, according to Bustan (2005), discourse is a meaning container that contains a set of norms and values that connect the language forms with the socio-cultural context which underlie the use of language in a communication event. The relation between language forms and context is framed in such a way by the speakers in question to be a discourse as a venue for the process of producing and interpreting meaning. In line with the presence of the discourse as dialectic between events and meaning, Ricour (1966) defines discourse as a language event or languages in use.